Past Events
The National Security Roundtable
cordially invites its MEMBERS to a Cocktail Reception, Briefing & Discussion with
Bing West
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense;
Marine Combat Veteran, Journalist and Author of
the New Book "The Strongest Tribe"
and a Special Introduction by
Hon. R. James Woolsey
Former Director of the CIA
"The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics and the Endgame in Iraq"
Monday, September 22, 2008
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
The Harmonie Club
4 East 60th Street
New York, NY
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Bing West served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Reagan administration. As a Marine infantry officer in Vietnam, he served as a member of the Force Reconnaissance team that initiated “Operation Stingray” - attacks behind enemy lines - and also saw action in the villages with the Combined Action Platoons. Later, as an analyst at the RAND Corporation, he wrote the Vietnam classic The Village, which war colleges use as a primer in counterinsurgency.
Mr. West is a universally respected combat journalist and author, and a Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. His latest book, "The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics and the Endgame in Iraq," is the third in his trilogy chronicling the war in Iraq, in which West attempts to capture the experience of the men with the boots and the guns, the rank-and-file U.S. infantry. whose skills and sacrifices have brought the long, bloody American campaign in Iraq to the brink of victory. West saw the fierce fighting in Iraq at close range, making more than 15 extended trips to Iraq, embedding with over 60 U.S. and Iraqi battalions, and interviewing more than 2,000 soldiers. His book is full of eyewitness accounts of nerve-wracking patrols, improvised-explosive detonations and small-unit gunfights, and has been hailed as “a brilliant exposition” and true “classic” written by someone “with a great ear for military truth and a determination to render events accurately” [Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor, USMC (ret), co-author of Cobra II; Dr. James Schlesinger, former Director of the CIA and former Secretary of Defense; Thomas E. Ricks, author of Fiasco].
Mr. West's previous books - Small Unit Action in Vietnam (1967); The Village (2003), Naval Forces and Western Security (1987); The Pepperdogs: A Novel (2003); The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the US Marines (2003); and No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah (2005) - have received numerous awards. His articles appear in major publications and he’s been named as “one of the top ten journalists covering Iraq” by The Los Angeles Times.
Notable Quotables
"Mr. Netanyahu is one of the most media-savvy politicians on the planet. On Friday he appeared live via video link on 'Real Time with Bill Maher,' taking the host’s alternately sardonic and serious line of questioning with gazelle-like alacrity."
~ Anthony Grant, jourrnalist who has written for many major newspapers and worked in television at Paris and Tel Aviv, interviewing former PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, at the outset of Mr. Netanyahu's new book (more here).
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